Resurfacing of the "Trashed" ELC B-3

[dmar836]

Always looking for a challenge and refusing to pay over 1000USD to ELC, I picked this up from Bazelot for a song.

This started as JRaptor's jacket (http://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=5194&hilit=ELC+RW+B3)

First, I should say that Tom did a splendid job on it! Not only would it have been a nightmare to sort and align the cut and ripped pieces, but to graft in a panel as well as he did, well, let's just say that many less complicated projects are abandoned all over my house. Then the stitching. How he hand-stitched it with machine-like precision I will never know. Kudos on using the original holes where possible and preserving the olive thread! I should remind you that this stitching job extended around an entire back panel, across the collar, both sleeves, across a front panel, and along the zip on both sides. I'm sure I forgot some areas but it was definitely "shredded".

Admire his work:

Tom's work is ideal for a museum restoration and no doubt many damaged original pieces have been tossed when they could have been saved with this technique. The repairs are plenty strong - Tom wore it and I wore it around the block to walk the dog. No signs of weakness. But since I want to fly in this thing, I decided to let the olive thread go and restitch the panels under the HH reinforcements for more durability. Any further blowouts or areas that won't hold will be subjected to a period-style field repair.

We'll see how it goes.

Dave

 

[MikeyB-17]

I came soooo close to buying this myself, but talked myself out of it as it was not a good time financially, and it's probably a bit big for me.

 

[dmar836]

Mikey, As a 44 it might be a tad big on me as well. Maybe I'll be taking some of it in slightly with the repairs and resewing the zip into it's original place will take it in a bit more. I have seen period shots of them looking oversized and sometimes flyers layered enough to require a larger than usual size.
Here's some of what I'm doing:

Here I had to peel back the pocket. This shows what kind of damage a woman scorned can do!

I have to separate Tom's stitches but only about 4 inches at a time. He had the parts aligned so well, I don't want to reinvent the wheel.

After that I loosen the HH reinforcement strip stitches, trim up any shearling in the way, and stitch the shearling back to the original edge - sometimes just grafting into the original overlock stitch.

I'm maybe about 1/3 through so I have yet to stitch any HH back down. I am hoping they will cover most of the repairs.

Dave

 

[dmar836]

There were many places torn along the HH reinforcement strips. Underneath was the tear along the HH stitch line and then the original overlocked seam in the center. When I restitched the panel back to the remaining shearling the new stitching would often fall right where the HH strip edge would lay. In some cases you could still see the hand stitching. No big deal and there will likely be places like that anyway but it eliminates the strength of the HH strip. I tore those areas back apart, cut out the original remaining seam with the remaining torn shearling and then zig-zagged the panels together. Now those will be well under the HH strips. Dyed some thread OD and now getting up the nerve to start on some of the smaller HH strips. I don't think I am patient enough to wait for a servo motor conversion so we'll see.
Dave